A Day on the Wrist of Sir Patrick Stewart

On 13th of July in 1940 Sir Patrick was born (just celebrated his 77th Birthday), from Golden Globes to Emmy's and from Star Trek and X-Men he has nailed it all.

The watch in question today and donned in the below picture is (we believe, but stand to be corrected), an IWC Portuguese Chronograph Ref 3904.



This was from the outset a challenge watch, a challenge that was accepted and smashed by IWC Schaffhausen. Two Portuguese businessmen, Rodrigues and Texixeira  thought it would be a nice little idea to put IWC to the test, they didn't believe a wrist watch could be produced that could be accurate and totally reliable to marine chronometer standards.

Undeterred by Rodrigues and Texixeira, IWC turned to a pocket watch movement, the only movement that could achieve the job back then, but it was a little large. The very first IWC Portuguese weighed in at a stonking 43mm, I know what you are thinking, nothing much by today's arguably ludicrous watch size standards, however back then with 33mm as the status quo this was a very big boy.



Unfortunately the Portuguese was undervalued and underappreciated and entered into years of dark decline, some thought that was the end of this historic watch. But a twist of fate saw the watch rise again But, luckily, a twist of fate happened at the beginning of the 1990s.

Kurt Klaus aka Einstein, a one of a kind IWC watchmaker retold that during a client meeting they noted that he was wearing an original Portuguese wristwatch reference 325. He explained that they all they gathered around him and his watch and stated "this is such a uniquely beautiful watch; we should make it again".

Plans were then put in place to bring back to life the Portuguese, developing an brand new line around this model from the past. Luckily the 125th anniversary of the Schaffhausen company was just around the corner in 1993, a opportune moment to show to the world the all new Portuguese in a limited edition run nicknamed the Jubilee.



The rest was thankfully a success and today we luckily still have the IWC Portuguese Chronograph, it is now considered a timeless classic by not just the watch world also wthin galaxies far away....